SCFFA Public Relations

Key participants in the Landscape Project were Agricultural Education Instructor Tommy Harmon; Will Amick, sate FFA vice president; Kleck Harman, Harman Landscaping and Irrigation; Suzette Sharpe, president of the Lexington FFA Chapter; Pete Hellman, Windmill Landscaping Services; and Danny Monts, Mid-Carolina Lawn Care Services

LANDSCAPE MIRACLE AT LEXINGTON TECHNOLOGY CENTER

“Agricultural Education students at Lexington Technology Center recently experienced a miracle on the landscape around the agricultural education department complex thanks to the vision and planning of agricultural education instructor Tommy Harmon,” reports John W. Parris, state director of public affairs with the SC FFA organization.

The land on that portion of the campus had been left barren following construction of a state-of-the art greenhouse facility a year or so ago.

As a part of his vision, Harmon secured the services of faculty members in the Horticulture and Landscape Design Department at Spartanburg Community College to develop a comprehensive plan that could transform the area into one aesthetically pleasing while offering additional educational opportunities for students.

Upon receipt of the professionally prepared design plan, Harmon proceeded to develop and submit an Educational Improvement Act (EIA) grant to implement the plan. The grant was approved and awarded to the center.

With the design and the grant in hand, Harmon realized additional professional assistance was needed so he accepted an offer from the Greater Columbia Landscape Association to join with them and make this their community service project for the year. This was the break Harmon needed to make his dream a pleasant reality.

An irrigation system was installed and the land adequately prepared to begin the landscaping project.

Association members brought equipment of all sizes needed on site. Numerous pallets of sod were conveniently placed outside the work area along with trees, shrubs, flowers, decorative stone, pine straw and rolls of black plastic.

Harmon and his students along with the landscape professionals decided this unique project could be completed in one day. So on Monday, November 11, they gathered early to begin work. They divided into small groups with a landscape professional assigned to each group to assist in installing the various aspects of the design plan. They planted as many of the materials on the National Nursery Landscape List as possible so the specimens would be on the school grounds.

Twenty-six students shadowed the landscape professionals from the various companies for the entire day. They worked tirelessly to accomplish what at first appeared to be an impossible task. Some constructed plots for turf variety studies while others used equipment to drill holes for planting the larger trees and shrubs. Others laid the black plastic sheets for weed control, carefully placed sod on the ground, and established beds of flowering plants adjacent the greenhouse. By mid-afternoon the project was a spectacular sight to behold.

“By working together, Harmon and his students along with the landscape professionals were successful in fulfilling a dream, completing what could have been considered by many as an impossible goal to accomplish in one day and bringing about a miracle on the landscape at the Lexington Technology Center,” Parris said.


One of the pieces of major landscaping equipment used to prepare the soil around the greenhouse.	Tommy Harmon admires the completion of landscaping project adjacent the greenhouse.

Students Andrew Chandler (left) and Dillon Price planting shrub adjacent greenhouse.	Students Andrew Merritt and Hillary Webb place permanent sod near greenhouse.